Music and more highlights new store

Frontiersman

WASILLA — THEN… AGAIN Music and More opened its doors in Wasilla last week, a month behind schedule but ready to contribute to the local music scene.

Owners Bob and Joy Jewett said their basement store, located under the Loon Attic off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, had a soft opening, but made no big hoopla about it. It’s business, and with it comes minor technicalities, like where to set up all of Joy Jewett’s stuff.

“I’m a packrat. I just am,” Joy Jewett said. “I can’t throw anything away.”

She describes her new business as a combination of music CDs, vintage items, retro-style gifts and a ton of Americana.

“There are so many facets to this that I’m really just trying to stay organized right now,” Jewett said.

Many music genres are available in one form or another, from acoustic and folk, experiment and progressive, techno and dance, classical and instrumental to rock and metal.

If THEN … AGAIN Music and More doesn’t have it, the Jewetts get it.

“My focus with the music is to get local talent in here, to sell their creations and get some exposure,” Joy Jewett said.

She has been busy promoting local musicians and bands, such as Will Johnson, Mike Gorder, Familiar Walls and others starving for an outlet for their music. She encourages local acts to stop by with items such as posters, a biography and at least seven CDs to put on the shelves.

The Jewetts also plan to give private music instruction for piano, guitar and trumpet. Her plan is to make THEN … AGAIN a musical Mecca in the Mat-Su Valley.

But music is just one facet of the new store. It also promotes the arts. Weekly workshops on painting, photography, arts and crafts, beading, stained glass, sewing, woodworking and even practical survival classes are in the works, with many artists jumping at the opportunity to lend a hand, Joy Jewett said.

“I pulled in a few of the local artists, like photographer Myron Rosenberg,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of craftsmen here in the Valley. Wood carving is popular so I got a local woodworker, my husband, actually, to jump on board. We’ve got bead workers lined up for the winter as well.”

There’s also a section of Alaska gifts and photography and a full range of locally made gifts.

The Jewetts said one of their goals is to bring the best of then back again with vintage and retro-style gifts, as well as books on history, archaeology and other locally focused educational subjects.

The Jewetts, along with local research group GENE Connect, will have ancestral research and digital copies of historical documents such as census information, land records and family migration charts. GENE Connect will touch-up old photos and provide reprint services upon request.

“I’m a connoisseur of primitive and antique things, and also a genealogist,” Joy Jewett said. “My husband laughs at me because we just saw the new ‘National Treasure’ [movie] and when they walked into the Library of Congress, I was really into that. I kept coming across old things that a lot of people don’t find value in: books, photos, things with sentimental value. We’ve lost that in our society. Our roots and heritage, that’s really important to me.”

The Jewetts want the public to know their store will eventually free itself from factory-made items, keeping the inventory local.

“A lot of people don’t like the ‘Made In China’ label. I’m there too,” she said. “With all the talent we have here, we should be buying local.”

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife-@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.